Elena Dementieva, Caroline Wozniacki upset in Tokyo second round

Now we can stop counting… Elena Dementieva of Russia and Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark have quickly joined a bunch of top players in their early Pan Pacific Open exit.

Third seed Elena Dementieva was beaten 6-2 6-7(3) 6-1 by Kateryna Bondarenko in the second round, and was soon after accompanied by fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, who retired due to a viral infection, while trailing Aleksandra Wozniak 0-5 in the first set.

Dementieva had never in their four previous encounters lost a set to Kateryna Bondarenko, and she blamed bad line calls and fatigue for the outcome of today's match.

"There were way too many bad calls from the chair umpire today," said the Russian. "I'm surprised they don't have a challenge system at such a big event."

During the Pan Pacific Open here on Women’s Tennis Blog we just mentioned the numerous upsets. This time, we should give some well-deserved attention to Maria Sharapova, who almost double-bageled Samantha Stosur to enter the last 16. Stosur saved two match points at 0-5 in the second set, and lost 6-0 6-1.

Note: Just one Top 10 player, Serena Williams, didn’t enter the $2 million Tokyo event, and only two of the nine that entered the tournament have reached the third round – Jelena Jankovic and Victoria Azarenka. (source: Reuters, photo courtesy of Women Who Serve)

There are some money hungry fools behind women's (and men's) tennis. Why would you have two big tournies(Tokyo and Beijing) after the final major of the year has already been contested? Don't they think that the top players are only playing these tournies because they don't want to be fined, and not because they "really wanna win every tournament possible YAY!!!"? Let's get real here. The WTA's trying too hard to justify the huge amounts of sponsor money being poured into their laps (and bank accounts) by giving so many tournies unnecessary prestige. For example, they need to shrink Indian Wells/Miami to one week tournies. Why the hell are they treated as "the slams outside the slams" and played for two weeks each? We don't need slams outside the slams…WE ALREADY HAVE THE SLAMS! I think it's ridiculous to expect the same players to deliver week after week when the only excuse the WTA has is "but, we pay you more money every year, okay!". Ridiculous.
I understand that the WTA adjusted the calendar this year, but all they did was subtract a few Tier I/II's, squeezed in the Premiers ( aka 'big sponsor money tournies') two weeks before each slam, and smushed the entire calendar by one month so that all of the top tournies would be done by November.
And for anyone that thinks that having Kim and Justine back's going to solve the problem of seeds crashing at Tier I's; they both have already claimed the slams as their priority for the remainder of their careers, primarily Wimby for Justine. They aren't going to play full schedules to become #1 because they don't have/need to (and don't want to have to commit to the minimum 16 tourney rule that top 10ers have to); they aren't playing for the #1 spot, nor are they playing for Tokyo nor Indian Wells…they want SLAMS, simple (and the fact that they will play less probably means that they will be healthier than the top 10ers and that has their names already etched on at least two slam trophies next year).

Ella, you've made some great points here. It's a fact, all the popular sports are revolving about money. I too often get an impression that the WTA Tour is concerned more about the money than about the players.